Experience in work experience

So valued readers welcome to my last blog post of the second year.

                    

This week I want to discuss the idea of work experience. As a journalist student it has been stressed to me that value of experience could easily dictate if you get a job or not.

Again I feel this another area of journalism I'm having to in a sense learn to bite my tongue and do as I'm told. As our lecturer Deborah Wilson has explained all the platforms of journalism are criss crossing, for example many print publication are training journalists TV broadcast skills to produce videos for their websites.

Now when I'm looking for work experience it feels like I should not only choose work experience on platforms I'm keen on entering but the ones I'm possibly not so keen on. For example print lecturer Tim Greenfield encourages his students to look for work experience in P/R alongside journalism since the worlds are slowly merging (though maybe this isn't totally a good thing) and to 'see if we like it our not.'

Keeping all of this in mind I've decided that their are six distinctive areas of the industry in which I should look for work experience in:

Print- newspaper

Print- magazine

Online

Radio

TV

P/R

So now I've stated that list I'm going to think sensibly about where I could find these opportunities and how other journalism students could use it:

Print- newspaper- Local newspapers and to an extent nationals if you can provide material they'd be interested in.

Print- magazine- Again local magazines are good source but specialists are good. For example freelancing for magazine of a subject you're interested in. Even children magazines are good for this as were close to the age of the target audience.

Online- In my experience many online websites are keen on recruiting freelancers to write articles.

Radio- Community radio is gold mine of work experience you gain so many skills in terms of your career and socially as learn to interact with people of all walks of life.

TV- Now this one is tough. However ITV do offer various internships in which you can help out on various TV shows on their network.

P/R- So this is a toughie, but I've found that a lot of P/R companies advertise via universities job sites and also it could be a good idea to email a P/R lecturer for their advice.

So far I've had experience in radio via Siren FM and my BBC Lincolnshire placement and online via the Lincolnite. Though this is not at an end as their are still lots of opportunities in those fields and theirs still loads to learn. However realistically I do aim to have at least some competent experience in each sector over the next few years.

Twethics

It's clear that Twitter has become a staple of the social media (well until it's reign ends) and thus many journalists use it as a communication skills or more importantly as a extension of their CV.

Through this surprisingly simple social network format is not just simply used in professional capacity. An example could be how Piers Morgan has used his Twitter to conduct arguments with celebrities in the case of Gary Lineker. Who swiftly answered his tweet:

Clearly etqiue is required for the use of social media for journalists, even in our un-professional capacity we should be careful about what we say our words our more powerful then we think. Johann Hari was even found to use the anonymity of the internet to attack and criticise people who gave his work a negative review.

Even though many of journalists and professionals add to their Twitter descriptions 'All views are my own' I feel some people use this in a way to excuse slightly unethical things.

 haven't added this to my Twitter descriptions because mainly it's a pet peeve and a sign that some people tend to take themselves to seriously. Also I feel some common sense is needed with this, people must realise that these are private accounts, groups and companies have their own Twitter accounts.

At the end of the day journalists ethics should apply to our private lives, like listening to all side of the stories, not posting cruel comments about a subject like I almost did yesterday about Piers Morgan but decided to keep my integrity and keep my views to myself.

When it comes to social media and journalists in their spare time. An old saying could be advised 'If you can't say anything nice don't say it at all'.

Geo-question-a-graphic ?

This week I've decided to look at the ideal location I should live in related to the profession of journalism, for the sake of the exercise we'll say I'm a freelance journalist of the print and radio platforms. To help me work this out I come up with some points I should think of:

-Is a city or town ? Considering that a lot of the amenities will be located in big cities like a majority of national newspapers are located in London it would be logical to live in a major city but what I should consider is:

-Do I have suitable mode or access to transport ? Sadly not every story fall onto your lap so I would need either a car or access to reliable public transport

-Is it near where I would work or could find work ?- Like with every other job it should be at least close enough for me to get their in time for the start of my working day.

- Would the place I would like to live in hinder my work ?- Could the area I live in be dangerous or unsuitable for my job, for example Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is a video game journalist who lives in Australia, though this slightly hinders his work as the country has very strict censorship laws so some of the games he wants to review are extremely difficult to obtain.

Now I was thinking about working abroad Chris Frost has suggested to 'make sure you don't need a visa- plenty of countries will not allow you access without one. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will give advice. Their web site is a wealth of useful information and has specific pages of advice on every country you are ever likely to travel to.'

Logically the US posses a hive of various media outlets one the like of Toby Young have used. If I ever planned to live their I must be careful concerning my job, Chris Frost says 'America requires you to apply for an 'I' via if you are working as journalist to media at home. If you are working for US-based media then you need a different visa.'

A speciality far far away

This week I'm going to look at a branch of journalism which seems to be quite appealing to me. Sci-fi journalism.
As wide sweeping as the term science fiction is this can cover a variety of subjects concerning games, comics and films, the standard palette of what could be considered a 'nerd' or 'geek'.

Looking at the teachings of Chris Frost 'reporters need to be able to think up good story ideas and develop them into follow-up stories, features or other stories.'

In my opinion this one of the genres of journalism with the most creative space. For example if you look at the reviews of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation) the kind of descriptive reviewing techniques he employs are quite unorthodox compared to say a book review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/16/eddy-merckx-william-fotheringham-review). However this could depend on the site as Yahtzee reviewed the Darkness 2 (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5394-Darkness-2) and compared to the review of similar website Game spot (http://uk.gamespot.com/the-darkness-ii/reviews/the-darkness-ii-review-6349874/) does not employ any of the humours or descriptive reviewing techniques Yahtzee does.

Whilst were on the subject of this brand of journalism I've noticed some of the more prominent figures in this section of journalism tend to have a go to franchise, something their extremely knowledge and passionate about. Game journalist Jim Sterling has proven himself to passionate and knowledgeable about Kirby and Alien. Though it's been clear journalists should have at least beginners knowledge of a wide variety of subjects it could be beneficial for me to find a subject like this which could make me stand out from the rest, in a sense my own personal USP.

As Angela Ripppon mentioned at a guest talk at the University of Lincoln for your personal subject 'you must know everything about it', this will be difficult for me to pin down one subject I could be more knowledgeable then most in. I may have to lead this blog on a to be continued line until I can think of one..

How special should we be as journalists ?

This week after my brief wading into P/R I'm going to return to my safety blanket of journalism.

So if you read my Lincolnite blog I'm going to warn you what's coming up is going to be spoilers.

This week I had to attend a public admin lecture in relation to my course options. Feeling to polite to leave after the talk had finished I stayed for the lecture and it highlighted another philosophical journalism rhetorical question which I'm going to have a partial attempt of answering.

'Is specialising in journalism more of a career hindrance ?'

Looking at the subject of employability and how journalists are supposed to be the guardians of truth shouldn't we through our net a wide as we can or are we spreading ourselves to thin ?

As a local reporter I'm not able to specialise in one subject look for example Jim Sterling who is solely a video game journalist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/articles/Jim%20Sterling) or Gordon Smart an entertainment journalist for The Sun. When spreading your net out further could help with their reporting Jim Sterling recently did a piece about the ten worst video games and made a reference to the X-men game, if he had some knowledge about the comic franchise his criticisms could have been even further diverse. Though he did spread his net extremely wide when he reported on the SOPA act and as Christ Frost writes 'A good reporter is unavoidably linked with what society sees as important about journalism.'

As a local reporter I have to be as diverse as possible as my target audience is what could be considered the general public and have a huge variety of interests. This means I have to try and cater to them. Below I'm going to try and demonstrate this with the stories I plan to pitch for my Lincolnite meeting tomorrow and place each of them into a genre of news-

1. Kony coverage event- As a tie-in with the viral video concerning Joesph Kony I want  to report on the planned promotion event which is happening in April to see if it has the desired effect it outlined. Looking at this I think it could be placed in foreign politics because it revolves around  a debated controversy in another country

2. Finding the most interesting displays at the local museum- I propose the idea of going to the local history museum and compiling a list of the most interesting displays they have. I would place this story in the genre of history since I looking into in a sense the history of the city.

3. Bug wildlife- I've heard from friends their has been a bizarre shift in wildlife in the local area so I propose investigating to see if the shift in weather which is unnatural for this time of year has caused this. I would place this story in the genre of science/wildlife.

Here I'm covering a wide variety of stories. Though through writing this entry I've decided we should basically remember the standard ethical behaviour of a journalist in no matter what we cover and a specialist is useful but it's worth remembering to mindful of all news coverage. In a nutshell it's worth remembering Chris Frosts words 'We know that much is expected of us in terms of gathering the truth and presenting it to a public'

PRlogging (P/R blogging)

So last week I looked at the relationship between journalism and blogging. This week I'm going in the opposite direction and looking at how journalists can use P/R blogs as a news source and why it's more preferable.

 As Chris Frost writes that press releases are very useful and 'have grown in importance over the last twenty years as editorial staffs in many provincial papers have been reduced and more and more organisations have become media sensitive.'

This is beneficial as news teams get smaller and smaller especially in the situation with the Lincolnite in which the staff has tendency to be only two people  and can also be step in the right direction for researching a story. For example a few months ago I was sent a press release about a new texting service in which you text a question and they respond for an answer. I used this press release as part of my basic research for a story in which I researched if these text services have a more sinister side,  the story was rejected as it's didn't really have any geographic viability for the Lincolnites target audience.

However it's strongly advised not use this a your only news source. Chris Frost writes that press releases and 'handouts are a propaganda vehicle for the sender. No one sends a press release which shows them, their company or group in a bad light.' However the interactive nature of blogging could add some balance to these corporations unbalanced representation.

Mohammad Ahmadinejad the current leader of Iran who has been known manipulating his nations media to hide certain occurrences in his country has his own blog (http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/fa/) and thus has a commenting system, this then allows anyone to take a post and have a series of balanced comments to go on to do further research to back up their facts with solid research. Chris Frost however puts it better 'You must read between the the lines to get at the real story and you may need to ring the contact for further information.'

An example of when I had to do this is when I was sent a short press release from Grindhaus skate boarding shop talking about an event he was holding. If I hadn't gone I would simply written a short article about an event planned. However since I went to the event (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/businesses-put-on-fun-day-for-lincoln-shoppers/) I was able to discover a stronger of angle of the fact the shop has it's own skateboarding team and also I found a series of follow up angles including the underground nature of skateboarding.

Is all blogging journalism ?

Theirs no denying that online journalism is certainly here to stay (were still a long way away from anything like Tron). Though it's wide spread and has lead to the birth of community journalism via the various blogging systems available across the web, could every blogger be considered a journalist ?
Though a lot of blogs consist of conventional aspects which would be found in more professional journalist outlets likes newspapers which essentially relies on interviews as a source of news but are they represented with the unbiased nature they should have ? (I know that some papers like the Sun who support the Tories  have biased but I'm trying to look at it from a academic utopia view)

For example nostalgic blogger critic Linkara interviewed voice artist and former Power Ranger Johhny Yong Bosch (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/specials/26652-interview-with-johnny-yong-bosch). Straight off when the reviewer begins to talk to him about his views of on what should be done with his character could be seen as bias as the producers may have had a reason for his character not being killed off and how he describes himself as the 'background ranger' could again be lob sided because theirs no balance.

Again listening to this interview two other flaws become apparent. Throughout the interview a lot of sound clips are used from various animes and the Power Rangers which clearly infringe copyright and could face a legal penalty. Also the quality of the interview is slightly echoey and crackly which could be because of the quality of equipment and the fact is sounds like it was done over Skype.

Focusing on a wider view of blogging in general one of the benefits it has especially when it came to the Egyptian revolution of last year was it enabled the public to get organised and overthrow the government at the time.

According to Martin Conboy 'online journalism will come increasingly to be considered as genre in it own right rather than as an adjunct to print, radio or television.', so the question is does it require censorship ?

TV and Radio have Ofcom and print has the PCC (which debatably could be compared to a 'toothless dog' and has little authority). Since SOPA and PIPA proved widely unpopular with the internet community because it essentially attacked free speech to the point the internet would cease to exist as it is it could be more logical to approach it from the idea that bloggers who claim to be 'journalists' should have to abide to a code of ethics, I'm going to make it clear I don't want the internet to be censored I just want their to be a scheme of accreditation to ensure those with news and journalistic content are heard.

To ensure theirs no kind of bias it should be monitored by a group like the NUJ but the shear scale of the internet hinders ever such a move. Though if this was ever to go ahead I believe a version of the NUJ code of conduct would make a good template (http://media.gn.apc.org/nujcode.html)

Even if my ideas are impractical I believe the public are being feed a negative image of blogger journalists. For example in the film Contagion Jude Laws character is depicted as being sleazy and deceptive and overall as unhinged individual, these puts truthful journalist bloggers in a poor light. Though their is a positive portrayal which resides in comics of the Spider-man character Betty Brant who works a journalist blogger and always searches for the uncensored truth.

Though to conclude this negative depiction of bloggers comes back Chris Frosts findings of how journalists are depicted are that essentially journalists serve as background characters and rung for the hero 'reporters are played as unpleasant in order to build the moral uprightness of the hero. This almost means that the reporter is seen as someone who is either self obsessed or rude and overbearing.'